Dark Empress (61 page)

Asima was standing at the far side of the small, bare storeroom, an expression of glowering hatred on her face when the pirate finished with the lock and pushed the door inwards with a groan.

“What now?”

“Captain wants you on deck.”

“Does he indeed? Well we’d best not keep him waiting, then.”

Asima was gratified to note as she stepped forward how the man moved carefully back and out of her way. If nothing else, her little exercise in butchery had earned her a reputation to be feared and in many ways fear was more useful than respect or love.

“You don’t have to be quite so jumpy, sailor. I’m unarmed and I’m hardly going to gut you in broad daylight in front of your friends, am I?”

She looked down at the wrappings around her throbbing hand.

“Besides, I’m hardly in a position to wield a weapon, am I?”

The big man gave her an unpleasant look and pointed at the stairs that led up on deck, the square hatch above letting in bright sunlight that stung her eyes after hours in the dark ammunition store. Nodding, Asima strode past him, her head held defiantly high and keeping her pace deliberately calm and controlled.

The deck was alive with activity, though curiously quiet. Asima frowned for a moment until she caught sight, between the working sailors, of the approaching jagged, black rocks. The pirates always seemed to fall into an awed silence around the reefs of the dead. Still, that explained Samir’s sudden desire to see her: they’d arrived at Lassos. What he intended to do now was, however, still a mystery.

Goaded on by the angry-looking pirate, she strode along the deck, combing out the irritating knot in her hair with her fingers; this sea air really was no good for her. The sooner she could get all of this behind her, spike a few disobedient and irritating heads and set herself up in the palace of Akkad, the better.

“Ah, Asima.” Samir nodded at her as they reached the command deck. “You have a curious look on your face? Contemplating murder again?”

“I was picturing your head on a spear tip, Samir,” she replied with a tight smile, “and wondering where it would look best. Certainly somewhere I could admire it regularly; and somewhere near jasmine to hide the stench.”

Samir’s grin was as unpleasant as her own and, despite the superficial smiles on the command deck, the undercurrent of malice was so thick and powerful that several of the sailors on deck moved further away from the pair.

“Sweet and charming as ever, my dear. Be grateful for BelaPraxis.”

Asima frowned in incomprehension, and Samir squared his shoulders.

“We are about to arrive at Lassos. It will take a while to get through the rocks, as you’ll remember, but then we’ll dock and when we do I plan to move you to a secure temporary location to keep you safe from harm while I go to the council hall.”

Samir glared at his prisoner.

“I would have liked Ghassan or Ursa to join me when I went to address the council, but you appear to have gone through my crew like a plague. I dislike it when my plans are changed for me, but we will prevail.”

Asima shrugged carelessly.

“So” Samir went on “you will be coming ashore with me, along with a number of the more fearsome and trustworthy of my crew. We will be heading through the town and up the side of the hill. When we reach the council hall, I will leave you and my men will take you somewhere safe. I’m warning you about all this now, because I need to advise you against trying any of your madness. You may hate me, but remember that on Lassos I may be the only person not planning to drown you on sight. Stick with my men for your own safety.”

Asima frowned.

“What are you planning?”

“That is none of your concern, Asima. Just go with the men when they take you to the safe house and try not to kill anyone on the way. We’ll speak again when I’ve finished with the council.”

Asima’s frown deepened but she held her tongue. The two stood in silence for several minutes, watching the rocks as the Dark Empress reached the outer edge of the reef. The mist closed in on the bow of the ship and, despite the bright afternoon sunshine, within moments the Empress was cold, damp and gloomy.

As she peered ahead into the mist, she could make out the figures of the so-called ghosts or wraiths that occupied the glistening rocks. It was easy in this mist to lose track of the time and, turning to the stern, she wondered whether the mist had closed in behind yet. Suddenly she realised the Empress was not alone.

“Samir?”

“Mmm?”

“Who are they?”

Samir turned to look over the rear rail at the array of small white sails, interrupted by the occasional black triangle, dotting the horizon behind them.

“Oh, friends of yours, I think. Probably not friends of mine.”

Asima rolled her eyes. Samir never gave a question a straight answer and the longer she knew him the more it annoyed her. She really would have to put him out of her misery soon.

“You do realise that they’re going to blockade the island now that they know where it is? Trap you all? And me along with you…”

Samir smirked.

“Is the governor’s arrival not part of your plan, Asima? You told him about me, the Empress and the dead man’s compass, so I can only assume you told him everything you know about Lassos, the reefs, the council and the ships.”

His smile was grating on her. Asima sighed.

“So they must have been following us since we left M’Dahz, then? You’ve very little choice now. You and your worthless friends are about to meet an unpleasant end as criminals and pirates. Want me to help? I can make it fast and relatively painless? Just a short sharp blow and it’s over. Much nicer than swinging from a public gibbet.”

Samir’s jaw hardened.

“Enough now, Asima. In around fifteen minutes we will reach the inner perimeter of the reef and approach the island itself. At that point things will become rather busy and I will be occupied. Remember that you need to behave, or I cannot guarantee your safety.”

His companion glared at him and then returned her gaze to the misty figures around the ship’s hull, reaching pleadingly to the passing vessel. One day she would see to it that Samir and his crew joined them. The image of him on his knees on a rock, pleading for his life as she drifted past was a satisfying picture.

“Captain?”

A sailor’s head popped up over the top of the steps from the main deck. Samir turned to look.

“Captain? The doc sent me. Your brother’s awake and you can see him if you want.”

Samir grinned.

“My day just improved a great deal. Thank you and lead on.”

As he stepped toward the ladder, he addressed the large pirate that had brought Asima from her cell.

“Make sure she’s got at least four guards around her at all times and don’t let her near anything important or dangerous. I’ll be back before we dock.”

Reaching the stairs, he clambered down them after the medical orderly and entered the corridor, making for the open doorway of the doctor’s cabin.

The scene that greeted him within made him start for a moment. His brother lay on the bed, on his side and facing away from the door with the doctor probing around his back. Ghassan’s shirt was up around his neck and there was a nasty wound half way up his ribs, laced with black thread and puckered with red, yellow and white flesh. The sight was momentarily horrifying until he realised that the shape and discolouration was largely due to the pressure the wound was under as Ghassan moved his arms and torso. Indeed, he appeared to be making windmill-like motions with his arms, causing the wound to ooze and change. Samir gulped down air.

“Is everything alright?”

The doctor looked up, surprised at the interruption.

“What? Oh yes. I’m just running a few tests. The wound may look unpleasant, but it doesn’t seem to have done any lasting damage and this man seems to have a remarkable constitution. My orderly, may he be cursed with wakefulness for a thousand years, fell asleep on watch and when he awoke your brother was standing at the window, looking out!”

The body shook and Samir jumped before he realised that Ghassan was laughing.

“Ghassan? You need to be a little more careful. You nearly died last night.”

The doctor stopped prodding things and stood back as Ghassan rolled slightly and came up with a groan to sit on the edge of the bed. He was deathly pale, but the smile on his face was warm and full of life. The captain sighed with relief.

“Samir? Your doctor here tells me that I’m a freak?”

“I never used that word… Gah! Patients!”

Samir grinned.

“Well you know what they say: the doc’s a miserable old goat, but his heart’s in the right place.”

“Well, he is a little impatient!”

Samir and Ghassan laughed as the doctor stood and scowled at them.

“Don’t over-exert yourself” he barked at his patient. “I will be back in less than ten minutes and then you will be resting again, if I have to knock you out myself to achieve it. Captain? Ten minutes, yes?”

Samir nodded gratefully as the man left the room.

“Ghassan, I am so glad to see this. I was worried that she’d have done some permanent damage to you. This may sound a little heartless, but it’s a damn good job she came after you before me. You managed somehow to floor her before she could finish you off. I rather think if I’d been first that she’d have managed to dispatch me before I woke.”

Ghassan shrugged and then winced at the pain.

“Actually, though this is painful, it’s not actually stopping me from doing anything. The doc says there’s no reason I couldn’t walk around and carry things apart from the fact that I’m still weak from loss of blood and even that’ll heal in time. I’ve been waiting until he goes away for a bit so that I can get dressed and come above.”

“Stupid, but very useful, since I could really do with your help. We’re almost at Lassos, the governor’s fleet is hot on our tail, and I need to address the council, with you beside me if you can manage it?”

Ghassan nodded.

“Of course. Now, what have you done with Asima?”

“She’s been held in a temporary brig,” Samir replied with a shrug “but I’ve had her taken on deck under guard in preparation for our arrival.”

Ghassan nodded.

“Perhaps it’s a good thing that I didn’t kill her last night, given your plan, but I’m still vaguely sorry that I didn’t. It’s going to take a supreme effort of will not to push her overboard onto the reef.”

“I made a promise to you and BelaPraxis, remember? Three chances. I figure she’s had two. For us to kill her out of anger or vengeance before the Goddess has her judgment would be to defy the ‘healing mother’, and defying a Goddess is never a good thing, especially when one is about to attempt such a thing as we are.”

Ghassan nodded again.

“Very well. Looks like the stage is set, since we’re at Lassos. With Asima, you, me and the governor, all the players are here too. Now we have to get your little production underway.”

He grinned.

“We’ve still got a couple of minutes before the doctor gets back. Pass me my shirt and help me upstairs.”

Impulsively, Samir enfolded his brother in a hug, eliciting a groan of discomfort.

“I couldn’t do this without you, Ghassan.”

In which the council sits

By the time the Empress touched the jetty, the hull bouncing away several times before settling and men jumping off to tie ropes, a crowd had already gathered at the far end. A twitch crept into Asima’s eyelid as she watched from the relative safety of the command deck. Down on the main deck, Samir stood with a sailor she didn’t know, supporting the sagging figure of Ghassan. Her erstwhile victim had glanced at her only once in the few minutes since they had emerged from below decks and his expression might have been unsettling had she cared more.

The port was chaotic, with people flocking to the jetty, despite being involved in a thousand petty tasks of their own. Cargo was stacked everywhere and, Asima had noted, eleven other jetties were occupied, which meant that every ship based at Lassos was currently berthed here. It seemed unlikely that Samir had managed to engineer a situation where everyone was in port, so it could be pure luck, but then Samir, like her, made his own luck.

Asima heard the man behind her clearing his throat meaningfully and, as she glanced at him, he gestured that she should descend the steps and join the captain. Her bulky escorts gathered around as she moved forward and kept close pace with her as she climbed down and strode, head high, to the place amidships where Samir and Ghassan were watching the boarding ramp being run out to dock.

From here she had a better view of the crowd on the jetty. As she’d fully expected, their faces were not the smiling visages of those come to welcome their compatriots home. The word ‘mob’ better fitted the situation. In the old tales, she could have imagined this lot brandishing farm implements and shouting. Before she was roughly manhandled into position next to the brothers, she did note the striking and attractive features of Captain Faerus, Samir’s friend, among those waiting. Faerus looked nervous.

The plank slid home onto the jetty and Samir and the other man helped Ghassan down. As soon as they reached the slippery timbers of the dock, though, Ghassan waved the man away and continued, wobbling slightly, on his own, his fingers locked round Samir’s arm for support, and tensing every time a badly-placed step sent a shock up his back. The large sailor behind Asima nudged her toward the plank and she tottered carefully down it to join the brothers.